The Persian Sibyl; from the series of Prophets and Sibyls in the Sisti

An engraved reproduction of a seated female prophetess in a painted architectural frame, holding a book and turning her head toward the viewer. Nude youths in the spandrels and a tablet inscribed PERSICHA below her suggest a Renaissance ceiling scheme, rendered in fine parallel hatching.

Look closer: The small nude figure holding up the tablet with the inscription PERSICHA, near the bottom center.

Artist

Giorgio Ghisi

Date

1570–75

Medium

Engraving; first state of three (BLL)

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2804 × 3760 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Goodwin M. Breinin, 1984